Uncharted Destiny (The Uncharted Series Book 7)

by Keely Brooke Keith

  An upcoming intersection broke the line of his path and his anxious thoughts. He stopped abruptly. So did Connor and Levi. He spoke to Connor over his shoulder but his attention never left the ground. “Do you think she turned here?”

  “Affirmative.”

  Revel studied the pebbled path in both directions but couldn’t see any fresh footprints. “North or south?”

  “Pick one.”

  Connor was right. It was anyone’s guess, and Revel was wasting time. If he wanted to lead, he needed to make a decision and go. But what if he chose the wrong path and while he was leading the men in circles, Bailey was picked apart by a giant flesh-eating bird?

  Before he could decide, Connor stepped around him and headed north. Levi stayed where he was with his crossbow loaded and ready to shoot anything that moved. The quiet man lifted his chin at the path, signaling for Revel to go next so he could guard from behind.

  Revel rushed down the narrow dirt path, scanning the fog on both sides since Connor was doing the front man’s job of watching the path for tracks. The trail curved between massive boulders, and Revel spotted a dark recess in the rocks. “Connor, wait.” He kept his voice quiet like Connor had ordered. “That area in the boulders looks deep enough to shelter a person. We should get a closer look.”

  Connor nodded and let Revel lead to the rock shelter. Freshly broken fern stems surrounded the opening, so he squatted by the entrance. “Bailey? Mr. Van Buskirk?”

  No one answered.

  As he stood to leave, prints in the dirt around the rocks caught his attention. He pointed at them and whispered to Connor. “Someone was here.”

  He cupped his hands around his mouth to channel his voice directly into the darkness. “Hello? Anyone in there? It’s Revel Roberts. I’ve come to help.”

  Again, no response.

  If someone were inside, they might be unconscious. Since the crevice looked to be a viable hiding place for an injured person, he struck a match and crawled inside. The fire’s orange light danced across rock walls on either side of him but didn’t reach the back. The simple flame quickly dwindled on the matchstick.

  He looked back at Connor and the hazy glow seemed bright outside compared to the utter blackness inside. “This cave goes deeper into the mountain than it appears. Bailey or Tim might be farther inside.”

  Connor opened his satchel and withdrew a compact lantern. He opened it for Revel to light the wick with his match. Once they had more light, Revel held the lantern in front of them, and Connor followed him in while Levi stood guard outside.

  Soon the ceiling of the cave rose above their heads, first giving them enough room to stand, then so much height they couldn’t have touched the top if they wanted to. Revel stopped and tapped his boot on the cave’s floor. “It’s dry back here.”

  “Hasn’t always been though. See the grooves in the rock? This cavern was formed by water erosion.”

  Revel was less concerned with science and more with finding his favorite scientist. He called out a little louder this time since they were inside and saw no signs of the bird. “Bailey?” He held the lantern out to one side and then the other. “Bailey?”

  The echo of his voice returned to him quicker from ahead than he anticipated. He advanced another step and held up the lantern. Its flickering light hit the back wall of the cave then fell on an unmistakable shape on the ground.

  “Whoa!” A dirty human skull gaped at him. Every muscle in Revel’s body tightened, keeping him just as he was—lantern outstretched, eyes wide. Then he saw another skull, and another.

  Connor knelt by the pile of bones and pulled a folding knife out of his pocket. Before Revel could gather his thoughts, Connor was carefully chipping away the dirt from around the skulls. As he removed the loose sediment, more bones and bits of tarnished metal were revealed. He waved at Revel. “Bring the lantern closer.”

  “At least three of them. How did these people die?”

  “I don’t know. It was a long time ago. Centuries, maybe.” A bone with a thin rusted chain draped across it poked out from the earth. As Connor lifted the chain from the dirt, a hunk of metal dangled from it. He examined it. “A necklace with some kind of medallion. Hope it wasn’t his good luck charm.” He looked at the skull embedded in the cave floor between his satchel and Revel’s feet. “Lot of good that did you, buddy.”

  Revel couldn’t have brought himself to use humor while surrounded by the dead like Connor did. Bailey probably would have too. Maybe that was part of what made them survivors. Perhaps he would have coped better with finding Charlie’s lifeless body hanging in the upstairs washroom at the inn when he was a boy if he’d laughed about it. No. There was nothing funny about a man’s suicide. Ever.

  Somehow the centuries between the lives of the souls who once occupied these remains and now gave enough distance for Connor to be impersonal. Revel never would have dug around human remains, but for some reason Connor’s confidence and knowledge made it seem moral for him to. Revel reached his fingers toward the brown bone protruding from the earth nearest his foot, but couldn’t get himself to touch it.

  Connor poured a few drips from his canteen and washed the medallion’s surface. The glow of ancient gold began to catch the light. “It’s Portuguese. The caravel remnants on the beach below the mountain might have been this guy’s ship.”

  Revel held the lantern close to the medallion. “What’s that symbol?”

  Connor washed more dirt from its surface and read letters aloud. “S-E-B-A-S-T. The rest are worn off. Must have been during the rule of Sebastian.”

  “Which makes these bones—what—almost five hundred years old?”

  “Looks that way. They must have been buried in mud for centuries, then it eroded enough to partially expose them.”

  Every school lesson about the founders flooded Revel’s thoughts at once. “Our founders explored the Land and found no sign of anyone ever coming here.”

  Connor dug around the protruding bones with his knife. “The founders didn’t come into the mountains though, did they?”

  “No.” Revel thought for a moment. “Maybe these were men from the Land who came to explore the mountains—the men we always hear about never returning to their villages.”

  Connor found something beneath the loose sediment and dug until he had a palm full of dirt-caked coins. “These guys weren’t from the Land. Tristan da Cunha isn’t far from the Land’s coordinates. Ships would have crossed the South Atlantic hundreds of times since.”

  “Do you think they shipwrecked on the other side of the mountain then climbed over the vine-covered cliffs only to die in here?”

  “In the few minutes I’ve been digging, that’s the best hypothesis I’ve come to, yes.”

  “What did they die of? Starvation? Disease they already had? The animal that made the paths outside?”

  “Inconclusive.” Connor looked up at him with his black eyebrows tightly furrowed. “All I know is the founders were wrong. Other people came to the Land before them.”

  “And entered somewhere other than Good Springs.”

  Connor nodded once. “Just as Bailey’s professor friend—”

  “Father.”

  “Yes, her father. Just as he entered by the estuary and traveled up the river.”

  Revel remembered what Bailey had said about what she saw in the air and felt when her ship entered the Land’s atmosphere. “But Tim entered the Land off the shore of Good Springs like you and Justin Mercer and the founders. Do you think Tim left the Land’s protective atmosphere out at sea and then reentered it at the estuary?”

  “We’ll have to ask him to know for certain.” Connor took a flattened paper bag from his satchel and dropped the ancient coins into it. “Let’s take enough of these to clean and study so we have accurate information to determine where these men came from and when. We may need to leave one with each overseer in the Land as proof.”

  Revel dug a few more coins out of the dirt and dropped them into Co
nnor’s bag. “Proof of what?”

  “Proof of our need for better security in the Land. Keep one for yourself as a reminder.”

  Revel pinched one last coin between his thumb and forefinger. As he put it in his trouser pocket, Levi’s voice echoed from the cave entrance. “Connor, Revel, get out here now!”

  Revel held the lantern in front of him as they hastened out of the cave. The soft light of the foggy morning quickly brightened the way, so he blew out the lantern’s flame. As he crawled through the narrow opening, a piercing screech resounded from beyond the boulders. It didn’t stop.

  He looked at Connor. “Is that the animal?”

  Connor brushed the dirt from his palms as he stood erect in the open air. “No. It’s radio feedback.”

  Revel’s heart beat hard against the wall of his chest. “Bailey.”

  Connor waved for them to follow him. “Hurry. She must need us.”

  * * *

  Bailey kept Tim’s lean hand tightly gripped in hers as she led them in the opposite direction of where the giant bird was aggressively clawing at the screeching radios. Throwing the radios far from the cave had put enough space between Bailey and the bird to sneak Tim to the path, but she almost regretted it since the thick fog obscured all but the animal’s long legs. She peeled her gaze away from its feet to guide Tim along the steeply declining path to safety.

  As they passed the tree with the eggs beneath it, Bailey pointed out the nest to Tim. His face perked up with a scientific passion that added life to his sallow skin. She wanted to stop at the nest and inspect the eggs. He probably did too, but they needed every minute to put distance between them and the bird.

  The farther they went from the noisy radios, the less she could hear the feedback. Suddenly, the bird screamed, then plastic cracked and the feedback stopped. Another sound quickly took its place through the fog. She stopped to listen.

  Footsteps.

  She leaned close to Tim’s ear. “The guys are nearby.”

  As soon as she whispered the words, Revel broke through the haze ahead of them with Connor and Levi right behind him.

  Revel jolted to a stop, but in an instant recognition lightened his expression. He ran toward her. “You found him!”

  Everything in Bailey undulated with joy at the sight of Revel. She hadn’t realized how much she needed him—his strength, his tenderness, his unfailing support—even though she’d been able to save Tim herself.

  She couldn’t stop her smile but put a finger to her lips. Revel nodded realizing he’d spoken too loudly. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly. “Thank God you’re all right.”

  She hugged him too but with only one hand since she still held Tim’s in the other. Her pulse was calmed by the peace of being connected to the two men who meant the most to her in the world.

  When Revel released her, Connor crowded into their close huddle. “Hey, Jeans. Great idea with creating feedback to distract that thing. Only now you left the two-ways up there sending signals from within the Land.”

  “Don’t worry. The radios will be destroyed soon if she hasn’t pecked them to pieces already.”

  “She?”

  “The bird.”

  “Oh, great. Did you name it too?”

  “No.”

  “Man, this place stinks. Let’s get out of here.” Connor looked at Tim. “Is everyone okay to walk?”

  He meant Tim singularly, but Bailey tried to wiggle the toes of her swollen foot. No one knew the vine had done something to her, and she planned to keep it that way. She raised her eyebrows at Tim, boosting Connor’s question.

  Tim nodded rigidly and drew a deep enough breath his gaunt chest expanded to near normal size. Being around the men seemed to give him strength, or maybe it merely gave him the desire to appear stronger than he was.

  Connor led the way back to the campsite, signaling with his hands when they needed to slow their decent or watch their footing. Revel stayed so closely behind Bailey she could feel his warm breath on her neck. Levi guarded the group from the back of the line with his crossbow loaded and ready to shoot. Surely, he wouldn’t kill the magnificent creature if it followed them.

  The mountain’s steep grade leveled off the closer they got to the base. The river’s sand mixed in the path’s soil and changed the sound of her footsteps. She’d almost made it to Tim’s campsite, to the horses, to their freedom from the heavy and dark presence that pressed upon her chest.

  She drew in a long breath of relief, then suddenly Tim lost his footing and slipped. She caught him before he hit the ground, but he didn’t right himself.

  “Tim?” She pulled his torso upright and looked into his bleary eyes. The energy from the food and water she’d given him, the excitement of being rescued, and the intrigue of the nest had sustained him down the mountain. But now it was gone.

  “I—” He closed his eyes. As his head lulled to the side, Connor scooped him up like a rag doll and carried him down the rest of the way.

  The path widened in its final stretch and Revel walked beside Bailey. He put his arm around her shoulder. She’d given all her strength to finding Tim and now that he’d been saved, he was a willow of a man, his soul shrouded beneath a diseased, starved, and fear-weakened frame. She leaned her head against Revel for only a second to let him know she accepted his support but didn’t stay close long enough to let him know how much she truly needed him.

  Soon the mountain gave way to the flat riverbank. Gee blew out a horsey breath as if to tell Bailey she’d been annoyed by being left there.

  Revel helped lift Tim to the back of Connor’s horse while Levi stood guard, watching the mountain with his crossbow aimed at the path. Bailey raised her hand to give Tim’s arm a soft squeeze. When he roused and looked at her, she whispered, “You’ll be fine. Just hang onto Connor. We have gray leaf medicine waiting across the river.”

  He nodded weakly and closed his eyes again.

  Revel met Bailey by the horses. Their reins were looped over a limb. He opened his mouth to speak but sucked in a breath and widened his eyes at something behind her. When she turned to look, she was met with the high, painful scream of the bird. It charged toward her with its pointy head held low by its long neck. It stopped inches from Bailey’s face, and its blackish-blue feathers rippled around its stout body.

  Her eyes traced its narrow face up to a fibrous crest, which could crack her skull open with one knock if the bird wanted to hurt her. But it didn’t move. Maybe it was only curious, or simply warning them to leave its territory.

  The massive bird’s feathered neck was so long, its hefty body seemed far away. Bailey glanced at its scaled feet, only seeing the three thick front toes from where she stood. Indeed its claws were lethal weapons against which even she couldn’t defend herself.

  The second she spent face-to-face with the ancient bird wasn’t long enough to need a breath, yet it seemed to be asking her myriad questions. Who was she? Why was she here?

  For the first time in her life, she could truly answer those questions.

  She was Bailey Colburn, distant cousin of the Colburns of Good Springs, daughter of Timothy Van Buskirk, child of the Creator God. She was in the Land to connect with her family, to study the gray leaf tree, and to live an interesting but peaceful life in this beautiful place.

  Before the second of time elapsed, Revel knocked her to the side. She fell against Gee, who was shuffling nervously. As Bailey regained her balance, Levi fired his crossbow, hitting the bird in the back of the head. It writhed, its mile-long neck sending its knobbed head in every direction.

  Levi was still aiming, so Bailey untied Gee from the tree branch and hurried her away from the flailing bird and toward the river, unable to feel her swollen foot the whole time.

  The creature screamed again and Blaze reared up. While Bailey glanced at Revel’s horse, the bird stumbled back toward its path, which Levi and his loaded crossbow were blocking.

  She saw his finger twitch on the tri
gger and yelled, “No!”

  It was too late. Levi shot again and the bolt disappeared into the bird’s lustrous black feathers. It fell against a boulder and slid to the ground, still twitching. Its high scream faded to a defeated hum.

  “Come on, Bailey.” Revel spoke at full volume as he walked Blaze toward the softly flowing river. “Don’t watch it die. Come on.”

  She reached out to pet Gee’s neck as if the horse was the one in need of comfort, but Gee was eager to follow Blaze to the water. The crossbow popped once more and all went still behind her. The magnificent creature was dead.

  She looked back once and wished she hadn’t. Everything she’d seen in life that gave her the same feeling raced through her mind at once: The inside of the bare-blocked prison when visiting her mother; a teammate’s broken tibia protruding from his bleeding skin after a championship match; her college roommate dying slowly from the water poisoning; the thin sliver of light coming in beneath the closet door where she was locked for hours, swearing to herself if she ever escaped she’d learn to fight so she’d never be trapped again.

  And she hadn’t been. She’d escaped high school rapists and looting thugs and the post-war world where the surviving few were determined to build new dictatorships.

  She’d survived it all and made it to the Land. But now, after crossing its splendid plains and climbing its beautiful foothills, she’d entered its dark mountains and been infected by something more sinister than all she’d encountered before.

  Gee carried her across the river, and Revel stayed close beside her on Blaze. When they reached the deepest part of the river, she lifted her feet close to Gee’s head to keep her unlaced shoes out of the water. The lower part of her right leg had swollen to where her jeans compressed her flesh. While Revel was looking behind them at Levi, she peeled up her cuff to inspect her skin. Dark purple lumps stood several millimeters higher than her swollen leg. That despicable vine.

  When they reached the safe eastern bank of the river, she inhaled deeply to release a sigh, but the stale air whistled out of her lungs as if her bronchial tubes were constricting.